Library and Archives Canada has expanded its Lynn Johnston collection with the acquisition of new material, including more than 3,000 drawings, from the creator of For Better or For Worse.

"This is a remarkable addition to our holdings," Hervé Déry, acting librarian and archivist of Canada, said in a statement. "Lynn Johnston's work is significant to Canadians. We recognize ourselves in her characters' reaction to everyday life."

A native of Collingwood, Ontario, the cartoonist wrote and drew the comic strip about the Canadian family the Pattersons, which was syndicated from 1979 to 2008 in more than 2,000 newspapers worldwide. Returns continue to appear in almost as many newspapers. Johnston in 1985 was the first woman and the first Canadian to win the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award; she was also nominated in 1993 for the Pulitzer Prize.

The new acquisition consists of 3,282 drawings, 296 watercolors, 3.5 meters (11.48 feet) worth of textual material, 244 photographs, 13 reproductions and eight object classified as "dolls and ephemera." Those join 3,000 drawings and 5.5 meters of text already in the archive's Johnston collection.

Based on Ottawa, Library and Archives Canada is a federal institution tasked with acquiring and preserving the country's documentary heritage.